SOUTHERN CROSS SILENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 627, 2 April 1929, Page 9

SOUTHERN CROSS SILENT

WHEREABOUTS UNCERTAIN SEARCH BY LAND AND SEA (United F.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Fress Association) Reed. 10.21 a.m. SYDNEY, To-day. No definite information has yet been received concerning the whereabouts of the crew of the Southern Cross, which was forced down about 200 miles from Wyndham on Sunday on account of a shortage of petrol. Apparently the transmitting portion of the wireless plant is out of order. Torrential rain has fallen in the Wyndham district during the past 24 hours. Airplane search parties left for the scene of the supposed forced landing, and a launch, carrying petrol and provisions, departed from Wyndham yesterday. Fog and heavy rain made the task of the navigator, Mr. H. A. Litchfield, in locating Wyndham, almost impossible, and the Southern Cross overflew her mark. An airman in a West Australian Airways machine left Port Hedland (about 700 miles south-west of Wyndham) yesterday morning, and was expected to reach Wyndham last evening. He will begin a search for the Southern Cross to-day. The Drysdale mission station is not. in connection with the telephone or telegraph systems, hut Mr. T. H. McWilliam may be able to improvise wireless communication.

The town of Wyndham stands near the southern end of a long, narrow inlet (Cambridge Gulf), about 50 miles inland. From the dispatch of a launch with petrol and provisions, it is apparently thought that Kingsford Smith, having over-shot Wyndham, may have landed somewhere near the coast.